David Allen (1) (1945–)

I read this book on a recommendation because I was momentarily overwhelmed with a project list and life events. I was remarkably un-impressed.

A caveat: There are two types of books for which I have no use. Those are business books, and self-help books. This is a business self-help book, so...there was little chance that I would receive it well.

That said, there are objective reasons for my dislike. First of all, this is a sluggish read. Allen's style is difficult to follow, and extremely show more repetitive. I found my own organizational system to already include several of his more practical components (not difficult considering how simple those components are), only in different forms or combinations. That, I think, is one of the primary detractors for me: Adopting someone else's organizational system has never been met with success in my own experience. I've spent a good amount of time honing my own system through college, grad school, and professional life, and I've found two things: 1. It's dependent on my personality and understanding how my own brain works, and 2. It fluctuates depending on life circumstances (i.e.: everything that worked in undergrad doesn't work the same now, and the system needs to be changed periodically).

Allen's system is incredibly prescriptive and, despite his claims as to its flexibility, remarkably inflexible.

My second profound disagreement with Allen is a philosophical one. He writes with the assumption that no time should ever be spent with nothing to do. He contends that one's system should include something that can be done whenever there is a free moment waiting in line, waiting for someone else to show up...whenever. Granted, his target audience is the stereotypical executive who is driven by numbers and for whom being constantly busy is seen as some sort of achievement. Creatives, though, understand that time spent doing nothing and not focusing on any task is often when the best inspiration for something new arrives, or when the problem that's been nagging on a project is suddenly solved because your brain has had time to process things. This says nothing of research showing how un-healthy and detrimental to one's attention span it is to never permit one's mind to wander aimlessly.

I also find it a bit counter-productive to invest the time in struggling to finish this book when I, in fact, have many other projects that require my attention.

I'm very much in favor of having a good system of organization. I understand competing priorities, and how easy it is for anything not recorded in the proper place to get lost. I also recognize that not everyone can necessarily formulate their own system, and may need some coaching. Allen's system, though, isn't it. This book promises much and delivers little. It's a waste of time that you likely can't afford if you're considering reading. show less

Making It All Work by David Allen, author of the influential productivity book Getting Things Done, is a study of the underlying philosophy of the ‘GTD’ productivity system that is his brain child.

Making It All Work does cover a full review of the GTD system, so you can read this title without having read Getting Things Done to learn about the mechanics of the system. However, what distinguishes this follow-up to Allen’s original book is that Making It All Work is primarily a study of show more why the GTD system meshes so well with human nature.

The fundamental essence of the GTD system can be distilled into one single question that Allen asks the reader of Making It All Work: “What have you not yet fully accepted and acknowledged that is pulling on your psyche, or on your company, or on your family, right at this moment?” This is the fundamental question that the GTD system eternally poses to those who integrate the system into their lives: “What actions are not taking place, because they haven’t been defined, because you haven’t reminded yourself about them, or because you’re simply avoiding them because you’re not trusting enough that they are the right ones?” The GTD system provides a practical application to help answer this question, but as Allen explores in Making It All Work, the question does have philosophical, even spiritual implications.

Allen’s prescription for avoidance, procrastination, apathy and psychological inertia is summarized in a single aphorism: “Pay attention to what has your attention”, and he reinforces this phrase and concept throughout the book. The down-to-earth practicality of the GTD system is quite deceptive: at its core, GTD is actually about raising your level of consciousness and self-awareness, as well as fostering a healthy sense of inner-congruence. “Pay attention to what has your attention” could just as well be an aphorism overheard during spiritual instruction of monks in a secluded monastery.

Another interesting perspective on the philosophy of GTD that Allen explores is his assertion that the neat categories that we love to pigeonhole life into are harmful illusions. “The whole concept of work versus life and personal versus professional is nonsense,” Allen writes. “Life is work and work is part of life, and the profession is the personal.” Even on the cover of the book Allen reinforces this concept: “Winning At The Game of Work and the Business of Life”, it reads. The mechanics of the GTD system itself of course reflects this view; Allen describes GTD as being a “total-life action list…the foundation of hour-by-hour decision-making.”

According to Allen, there is only one definition of ‘work’: “anything you want to get done that’s not done yet.” So if you are avoiding a certain chore or project at home, this will inevitably drain psychic energy while you’re at work; or if you are avoiding a vital task at work, you will find yourself in a state of anxiety while you’re trying to relax at home: the psyche doesn’t distinguish between ‘work’ and ‘home’, so failure to appropriately acknowledge responsibilities in any one area will inevitably cause psychic drain in every context of your life.

This is why Allen stresses implementing GTD as a “total-life” system. According to Allen, when we adopt this total-life perspective, “there is no sense of overwhelm, no distinction between personal and professional, no dilemma of a life/work balance. You are doing in a state of being, and can simply be in an active and dynamic way.”

In Making It All Work, Allen also investigates another interesting phenomenon: the human perception of time, which he hints is an illusion. “The truth is,” Allen writes, “when you are ‘in your zone’ – when time has disappeared and you’re simply ‘on’ with whatever you’re doing – there is no distinction in your psyche at that moment between ‘work’ and ‘personal’.” This state of ‘timeless nirvana’ appears to be the ultimate goal of the GTD system (in fact, the GTD app that I use is aptly named ‘Nirvana’).

The goal of using a system like GTD, according to Allen, seems to be to reach this state of total inner-congruence, in which the constraints of time itself are revealed as illusion; it isn’t that time becomes ‘unlimited’ when you implement the GTD system – quite the opposite – it’s that you never feel like you are doing the "wrong thing" with your time, and therefore don't feel constrained or hindered by it. “You will experience, at least in the existential moment, no sense of time, of overwhelm, no gnawing sense of amorphous pressure on your psyche,” Allen explains. “You’re just doing what you’re doing, appropriately and without internal distraction.”

It is easy to dismiss Getting Things Done as just another ‘Self-Help’ book, complete with the obligatory picture of a smiling, successful looking author on the book cover, the sort of book that provides a little dopamine hit for the reader but nothing more. In Making It All Work however, Allen demonstrates that his GTD system is more akin to a manual for practical enlightenment than it is a nifty system to remember to pickup milk from the store.

I do not merely recommend this book; I would actually suggest that the implementation of Allen’s GTD system, or some variant of it customized to your liking, is a per-requisite to unlocking your latent, untapped potential as a productive, focused, self-actualized man. It does make sense to read Getting Things Done first, but Making It All Work distinguishes itself as essential reading as well, owing to its philosophical, sometimes even quasi-mystical, yet ever grounded in reality exploration of the GTD system. show less

Getting things done had a lot of common sense organizational tips, and even a few "ah-ha!" moments for me. This book is supposed to be helpful to everyone (stay at home moms to CEO's), but I think it would be a lot more helpful to people who have trouble organizing stuff (hint: do you have piles of stuff to do or put away sitting all over the place, or do you have trouble remembering to do important stuff because you're busy doing less important stuff that also needs to get done?). I felt show more the book was a little too pre-digital age, though. Too much "put each item of your to-do list on a separate piece of paper and put it in your inbox." How many trees has this guy killed?! show less

My friend who is a productivity nerd recommended this book. He has never steered me wrong yet with a book recommendation. That recommendation coupled with the fact that he is the most productive person I know in every area of his life showed me that the information contained in this book could change my life. I have read through it once and now I am going through it while implementing the changes. It's not easy to change the ways that I have been doing things but I need this change. I have show more noticed some lapses in memory since taking a new position at work and I know that if I had a system where everything was written down somewhere externally then I would not have forgotten what I was relying on my mind to remember. Not everyone will use everything from this book but like the author says, even if you only use the two minute rule then it will be worth it. The two minute rule is that if there is a task that comes to you that you know will take two minutes or less just go ahead and do it. I would highly recommend this book and am committing myself to putting as much of it into practice as I can. show less